Growing Up in the 90's

My childhood memories

I'm newly registered here at this site, but I've been browsing for a while. There are many interesting and well-written articles here that I have enjoyed reading and I figured I'd give it a shot myself. Basically it's my first article, so go easy on me.

So I was born in 1991 in a relatively small town on the west coast of Norway. In case you still don't quite know where that is then I can say that it's in Northern Europe, and it's where the real vikings were from.

Growing up my parents had friends with children older than me. This was when I was about four or five years old and I was introduced to the NES. Many of you would say that the NES was before my time and you'd be right, but nevertheless I got one from these friends of my family who weren't interested in it anymore. I got hooked on mostly Super Mario Bros. 3 and Metal Gear: Snake's Revenge. Some of my friends at my age had an NES too, and we'd spend our days in front of the screen playing a lot of the old classics.

This was the time when Super Nintendo was still in stores. I can remember the transistion from SNES to Nintendo 64. These three consoles from Nintendo were the ones that really stuck with me later. On Super Nintendo there were Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Lion King and Dr. Mario. On the Nintendo 64 there were Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Pilotwings 64, Mario Kart 64, Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Pokemon Stadium that I really enjoyed playing.

It's funny being born in the early 90's because there's been a lot dispute on whether or not this and that generation REALLY grew up with NES or SNES or whatever. And us early 90's kids were always in the middle of things. Personally I would say that the NES belongs to late 70's/early 80's people. Now when it comes to my generation I would say it's a split between Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 respectively. We got the best of both of these consoles and the games they had to offer.

Now let's move on to another line of consoles. The one true enemy of Nintendo from the start was Sega. This was before my time. Sega was in the 90's, but was early on beaten by Nintendo. I've played some of the Sonic games and a few others now and then at friends' houses, but I never really got around to owning one myself.

If there's one console that my generation will definitely always remember then it's the PlayStation. This was the definition of coolness. Nintendo was great too, but the games were more child-friendly most of the time. The Playstation released by Sony Computer Entertainment had an entire new range of video games. You had Crash Bandicoot, the Tekken series, Metal Gear Solid, Dino Crisis, Ape Escape, Red Alert, Syphon Filter and many movie related games. James Bond games was always popular. It spawned yet a new competition for Nintendo, one that still lives today. Heck, they still sell PS2 games in stores, and it's a while since that console was released.

Moving back to the PS1 though, it had comfy controller with a vibration feature. I think it's safe to say that most people are more familiar with the DualShock controller as opposed to the original. This included the analog input that was used in many of the games. Besides this you could subscribe to the Official PlayStation Magazine (OPM) and get a free disc with several playable demos on it. This was useful for us to pick out which games were worth getting later.

That was really all I wanted to get out there for now, but I look forward to touch upon other 90's memories. Seeing it's a new decade then maybe some memories I have from the early 2000's as well.

- Chris

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as far as games, had to be pokemon stadium and puzzle challenge! and commercials of the year, "hallmann's mayo" "bring out the hellmann's, and bring out the best", and the other was the "hoover nobody does it like you"

I was a Nintendo only person. And while my buddy up the street had a PS1 (and N64), I never regretted my decision. Mario 64 was and still is epic and absolutely a hoot to play.

But there were a ton of games for the N64 other than Mario 64 and Waverace (which I owned as well). Ocarina of Time (the best game ever, IMO), Killer Instinct Gold, 1080 Snowboarding, Blast Corps, Mario Kart 64 (still the definitive game in the series, IMO), the best three wrestling games to grace any system (WCW/NWO Revenge, WM 2000 and No Mercy), Super Smash Bros, Pokemon Stadium 1&2, Pokemon Puzzle League, Banjo Kazooie, Star Fox 64, NBA Hangtime, and this is not to mention Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. Not alot of games at the end compared to the PS1. But enough quality games to have made a statement. Sure I missed some more

And as for the Nes.....Definitly a solid system and it had lots of variety which sadly I cant say the same for the N64....but the N64 was groundreaking regarding Mario 64 and a few other titles, the analog stick was awesome as well as the rumble pack and TRUE 3D worlds, but it had less hits, less variety, no sprite based games, only 1 horror title which was the Resident Evil 2 port and hardly any fighting games and lacked RPG's...Not that I care since that's one example of a genre that I dont' care for. ;p

Anyhoo! I gotta throw down my favorite PSONE titles because I said so!

I could name more, but most of them haven't aged too well And i don't even consider most of them even being that fun or playable anymore. What can I say, the PSONE/N64 era was like a fresh new testing ground for 3D games. Many games were running below 30fps which nowdays would be a deal braker...

The 80's(especially) and early 90's were an amazing time to be a kid.The Nes era was incredible, Nintendo Ruled the freakin world and the games were mind blowing. Too many great memories playing Super Mario Bros 2, Punch-Out!!, Kid Icarus, Contra, Ninja Gaiden, Ducktales, Mega Man 1 and 2, the list goes on and on. And those 80's and early 90's game comercials! god were they bat nuts 'awesome!' I wish I had a time machine so I could go back!

Oh well, I adore the Wii, best nintendo console since the SNES! When Motion Controls are done right they're incredible and flat out enganging. Metroid Prime 3 is the perfect example...I felt like I 'was' Samus, in her world...It was the most engaging video game experience ever for me. I'll never go back to those retarted archiac, clunky, boring and unengaging Dual analog sticks....Wii Pointer controls destroy them.

And I still need to play Super MArio Galaxy 2! Aghhh Kirby's Epic Yarn looks incredibly unique and amazing, along with Donkey Kong Country Returns. But hopefully Golden Eye 007 and Epic Mickey live up the hype as well hehe.

Dude, people got a Playstation initially cause it had Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, and Twisted Metal. They got an N64 if they wanted bright, kiddy games like Mario 64 and Wave Race. I remember getting both an N64 and a Playstation for Xmas one year (one HELL of a xmas by the way). I got Twisted Metal 2 and Tekken 2 with the Playstation and Mario 64 with the N64. But to be honest, I never got another game for the N64 (came close to getting Zelda). Playstation was just too awesome.Poor Nintendo-only people. Reeeally missed out.

@Malbosia: I am so jealous! I wish I never would have sold any of my older gaming consoles now, especially my NES and model 1 Sega CD... I miss that stuff so much, when games were mostly fun and original. The oldies are always the best!

Dude, nice article. Although it was mad short, you still did a good job for this website. My older bro.'s only a year younger than you, but we all got the N64 as our first console. You gotta be pretty freaking young to be born in the '90s and have a SNES before it got replaced by the 64. Lucky, XD. Anyway, I've become an official Nintendo collector now, with NES, N64, Gamecube, PS2 (my only non-Nintendo system), and Wii. I'm trying to get a SNES for less than 50 friggin dollars on eBay. There's too many cheap people on that site.